News, commentary and analysis by leaders of the Communist Party USA in New York State. We discuss State politics and issues in New York City, covering developments in labor, civil rights education, housing and more.

Monday, November 30, 2015

Basis for summarized Remarks
before the

National Committee Meeting of CPUSA

Chicago Illinois • November 14th 2015

It’s in
our Hands….

By Jarvis TynerMember of the National Committee, CPUSA

I am
deeply concerned.

I come
before you today with a heart full of a love for our party and all comrades. Because
I love our party I have deep concerns
about the current political and organizational direction we are headed in.

We are at
a critical moment in our history.This
is a time when an open socialist can run for the highest office in the land and
win the support not of thousands but of millions.There is also a good fighting chance that
our nation may elect its first Liberal Democratic woman President.At the same time, the extreme right is using
this election to make a big push to restore its momentum, to win total political
dominance put their disastrous program fully in place.After the new level of mass rejection they
have faced during the Obama era they are pushing for new decades of extreme
right wing rule.

Donald
Trump the extreme right wing demagogue is running hard on the anti immigrant,
racist, pro war, pro corporate, anti women policies.As the GOP front-runner he poses a grave threat
to democracy. Ben Carson’s policies are just
as destructive.The fact that these two are leading the
Republican wolf pack is not a sign of strength it is a sign of the political and
moral bankruptcy of that party.

Fortunately,
there is a multi racial labor and people’s progressive electoral coalition that
defeated them in 2008 and 2012.If
inspired, organized and united they can be defeated again. Our party’s role is very important and in many
areas we are recognized and welcomed as a active part of that winning coalition.

My Concerns…

The idea being
pushed in our ranks that our Party faces an “existential crisis”, does not
inspire but demoralizes comrades and I believe is a wrong assessment.It’s
not accurate and it promotes the false view in my opinion that we are weak,
ineffective even moribund.That is not
the experience in NY District and in other districts as well.Many of our allies and coalition partners do
not agree with that assessment either and wish the party well.If that assessment is adopted as a starting
point in our work it can become a self-fulfilling disaster for our Party.

I have in
my hands 30 recruitment cards from the NYC area which I believe are 30 good
reasons to reject that assessment.These
are people who have joined since 2013 from our mass work.It does not include our internet joiners and
new members in the upstate areas.

Just last
week in our district, Estevan our party organizer and our rep on the planning
Committee of the food workers action, on Tuesday introduced the political
approach and basic ideas that helped forge the alliance of the low wage workers
movement and the Black Lives Matter movement.We also took many timely practical steps to realize that alliance.Our prestige in both movements has gone way
up.Because of that kind of work, Eric
Garner’s mother Gwen Carr agreed to be an honoree at our Better World Awards luncheon
along with Amina Baraka, Ricky Eisenberg, Ava Farkus, new Director of Met
Council on Housing and Jose Sanchez a leader of the NY Fast Food forward
movement.

Some of you may have seen the picture of
Estevan in the NY Daily News.He was
right up front at the Fast Food Workers demo in NY.And we had a full house at the “Better World Awards
Luncheon.It was a beautiful event.

A Party of Action

To be effective we communists must not only
talk the talk, we must also walk the walk.

If it is our financial situation that
threatens our existence,let’s discuss
it.Lets develop a plan. It certainly
does not call for a “panic move” like selling our NY building.Our building is the largest source of income
we have and the most solid foundation for our future financial stability.If we sell the building, a potentially grave
crisis will exist in our future.

I understand that we have a problem of age
and energy among our most committed and experienced members.I am for positive advances in the work of the
party but we should not dismantle the political and organizational essence of our
party because some of our veteransare
demoralized or just tired.I understand
that butlike a lot of us I know this
Party can attract more youth and can be built and we are doing it.

I do not believe we are on our last leg as a
Party...

In my view, that the estimate is not helping
us move forward.It is helping to
rationalize major political and organizational retrenchments of our Party when
this is a time when a revitalized and growing CPUSA is needed.

But,
let me say this, even if we were facing the projected collapse of our Party I believe
we must not give up and not abandon longstanding Party norms, but mobilize our
membership and supporters and fight our way out of it just as this Party has
done numerous times for over 96 years.

2. I am
for a powerful on-line presence going back to Gus Hall’s information Super Highway
concept back in the 1980’s.But that has
never meant that we didn’t need an active and well organized, functioning party
organization as well.

3. I am
for the new initiative to build a communist students organization.But why should it mean we have to liquidate
the organization of the YCL among non-college youth.If a district wants to build the YCL why
can’t it? By the way, in my opinion, that
is a decision that should have been made at the 30th Convention but it
was not.The same with the dropping
Leninism which was pushed as a tactical change (Americanize our basic language)
but in life, as the youth proposal shows it was a rejection of the Leninist
concept of the organizational independence of the youth league.

Personally
I quote all kinds of US historic and current heroic figures but I see no
contradiction in also quoting Lenin and calling myself a Marxist-Leninist.

4.I am for finding the forms to aggressively organize
the over 2,000 at large Internet members but I am also for the restoration of
Party organizational norms.So we cannot
just talk that talk but “Walk that Walk” a lot better.We are a party of action and we need
organized clubs, districts and commissions. We need dues collection and well-organized
fund drives.We need recruiting drives
and public meetings all across the country.

To do
what needs to be done, we need to work towards the restoration of functioning organizational
collectives in the Party on all levels.

If we
cannot find a National Organizational Secretary today finding one and building
a collective should nevertheless be on the Party’s “wish list” as something we work
for.

And why
can’t we have a regular modest organizational newsletter that would report on
the good work of the party across the country?

5. I am
for the on-line People’s World that is considered a movement newspaper but at
the same time why can’t it also be the newspaper of the Communist Party?The current experience with the PW in the
labor movement, and with the “Better world Awards Luncheons” shows that this
can be done and our core constituencies will support us. We need a fighting
Party with a mass paper, not a mass newspaper with a weak or worse no Party…
That is if we are to remain a revolutionary working class Party….

When you couple these proposals with the push
to change the name of the party (which must be a convention decision also)I ask, have we concluded that we cannot build
the Communist Party USA today? And
again, is this the conclusion of a group of people who are tired? Certainly it
is not a conclusion we have come to together.

A lot of
comrades feel that we are backing into a phased liquidation of this great party
of ours.Are we giving up the leading
role of the working class and industrial concentration and the centrality of
fight against racism?Our efforts at recruitment
among people of color and workers might suggest perhaps we are.I hope I am wrong on this but it looks to me
like some leading comrades have given up on the party having a public face and
feel that we have to hide the party. If that is true, it is the biggest problem
we face.

I think
if we are going to have a presence at demos, county fairs, union events and
peace and environment conferences, street fairs and door to door concentration,
we need well written mass pamphlets and literature.And why can’t we work to have a hard copy of
the PW and PA once or twice a year to start.

I believe
we must not let what we can’t do stop us from doing what we can do.There is a lot we can do.We need honest discussions on all these
matters.

In conclusion, in 3 years our party will
celebrate our 100th Birthday.This is a big occasion and we must make it a big deal.Every September up to then we should be a
celebration ending with our Centennial in 2019.

We had a
celebration of our 96th in our district and over 60 people came and we
recruited 5 members.

Finally,
on our legacy.

We should
not allow the basic character of our party to be defined by our mistakes shortcomings,
rather then by our hard work, and tenacity and courage that over came the most
vicious, coordinated unrelenting effort by the most powerful imperialist class
in the world to destroy us.Under those conditions
we fought back and scored victories.

Today we
are the only political party in the US that thinks its necessary to do a public
mea culpa to be credible.It is US capitalist ruling class that owes
the people here and around the world including our Party specifically an
apology for its crimes.

Our
Party’s courage and sacrifices produced the greatest victories of our class and
people.Bill Foster, Gus, Winny,
Elizabeth, Hy, Ben, Ethel, Julius, Betty, Irving, Claudia, William Burghardt,
Robeson, Gene Dennis and Angela Davis; all of the great comrades and more went
to jail, or where exiled and persecuted to legalize this party and advance the fight
for democracy.They sacrificed much so
that the people’s movement and our party could survive and continue its great contribution.They did it so that we US Communists today wouldn’t
have to endure such attacks in the future.

“Don’t
give up the fight”

We are
still here and still fighting. This
party has been and must continue to be a force for enormous good and
progress.

…It is in our hands.

Let me
end by saying this. I have no malice
towards any comrade, whether they agree or disagree with me.I am for Party unity.I am motivated primarily by a concern for the
long term survival, growth and well-being this party of ours.. as a
revolutionary working class party.